Civilian lives
by SamThursday
Summary: William Harris McDougal, aka Billy buddy, aka Doctor Horrible, has a civil identity as a poor genius on a scholarship and works at a store part-time. Richard Princeton, aka Captain Hammer, also has a civil identity, and he was a librarian. Meeting each other as civilians while not knowing they were enemies may start something. Hammer/Horrible fluffy friendship.
1. Chapter 1

**A summary **

William Harris McDougal, aka Billy buddy, aka Doctor Horrible, has a civil identity as a poor genius on a scholarship and works at a store part-time. Richard Princeton, aka Captain Hammer, also has a civil identity, and he was a librarian. Meeting each other as civilian while not knowing they were enemies may start something. Hammer/Horrible fluffy friendship.

**Chapter 1**

Sometimes, Billy hated having double lives. Trying to balance them all out was always a pain, there was always something missing and he would find it in his other life. Once he forgot the remote which rewinds time at college when he got to class, he searched his bag for pencils, pens or anything instead he found a time altering remote controller.

He once found his calculator in his hands instead of his new invention, the slip-dip. Throwing it in the floor made it slippery and thinking of throwing it underneath Hammer before he could reach him will win him situation, instead he took out a plain old calculator, which broke even more when Hammer smacked him.

No, having alternate double lives wasn't fun. So he sighs and takes out his boring wal-mart uniform and wore it, getting out of the room and walking down the apartment. He needed to a way to pay for his tools and inventions, and since none of the foundations that helped budding new villains responded to him he started working.

Not very evil, he knew, but what else was he to do. If no one would help you simply because they dislike you, and you already have a goal, would you try to stop.

He wanted to change the world, change the statis quo. But even the good guys were very lousy at that job, they never tried to make things better, and villains always did what they wanted without questioning to their mental sanity.

and who would hire brains over brawn for a hero?

No, he needed it to change as a villain, so he swallowed his pride and walked the rest of the way to the store. What he really needed in all of this, was a friend.

**0o0o0**

Richard Princeton was the alter ago of Captain Hammer, a very none distinctive guy … if you ignored the muscles, which oddly enough happened.

No one ever connected him to Captain Hammer because he was smart, he was wearing glasses, and was wearing a sweater, he also worked as a librarian. So who would ever think of him as a hero, hmm? Acting dumb and jerkish – not a real word he knew but he isn't going to debate on that – most of the time helped in disguising him because he was always polite, smart, hard working and quite, a complete contrast to his hero identity.

It sucked, because he can never be who he really is, a mix of both.

Going to wal-mart to get more coloring books for the next school visit he stopped at as he stared at a small petite man and had the urge to yell _Doctor._ What? He only has the urge to call that to Horrible, maybe because they were both blonds, the doctor always wore his goggles that pretty much covered half his face, so he didn't know how he looked and only picked him up in crowds with his blond hair and goggles.

"Excuse me, but I need to buy those." He said, the small man turned and jumps nodding and mumbling a sorry. He smirked seeing the man go with his clipboard, an obvious worker here. And didn't act like Dr Horrible at all.

Picking up the top of his list gave him time to buy other things, such as food, a lot of food, pens, toilet paper – ruddy cat – shampoo and tooth brush. He turned to the corner and smacked right to a small body making it fall, he cursed knowing that he must have felt like a brick wall to whoever hit him.

"I'm sorry."

"no, my fault, wasn't watching." Then man gasped and his hands dropped going straight to his clipboard, he was the same blond worker he met earlier, Hammer noticed something at that instant.

Bandages, his shirt moved up for a moment to show lots of bandages, and the parts that wasn't covered had an obvious bruising. He frowned and helped the little man up. "Sorry again."

"Don't worry, I'm used to pain." The man stutters and there was an obvious twitch with the other hand. This didn't reassure him at all. "Are you sure, you look kind of tired."

"Yes, sure, work." The man was now stammering trying to get away from this. Hammer noticed the doodles on the cupboard and has a bright idea. "Hey, you're a good artist, do you think you can come to the library this Sunday to teach the kids how to draw?" he asks. The blond stops and looks back at hammer, straight to the eyes.

Hammer wanted to take a deep breath, what he saw was the bluest baby blue eyes he has ever seen, it made the man look quite literally innocent, like a child, even though he was tall and slightly muscled he still looked weak somewhat.

"Y-You think it's good?" he asks brightening up, _just like a child._

"Yeah, very good. What is it?"

"It's engine parts of the mini rocket model we need to build, it has to work on complete clean energy and I'm trying to figure out how, the rest are just … doodles." He blushed at that, Richard only smirked at it. "You, I was a student too, all my texts are filled with doodles."

"o-okay."

"I'm Richard Princeton by the way, librarian."

"B-Billy McDougal, part-timer and student." He said, there was less of a stutter in his voice now. "I just finished school a year ago, couldn't find work and here I am, how much left do you have?"

"I have a year at most."

"So you're twenty two? Like me."

"Nope, twenty one." He blushes, this guy sure blush a lot. "Well, I need to get back to the library, the books wouldn't sort themselves out now would they, nice meeting you Billy, hope to see you in Sunday." He called, waving and walking backwards then turned to walk straight. Billy waved back dumbfounded and blinked.

Did he just make a friend? He never make friends , not at least after he met them for years at most. What was it with Richard Princeton that changed that fact?

He just made a friend, and he wasn't a henchmen sent by the henchman's league. He started to skip as he continue his work for the day.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:- <strong>who wants awkward at first and strong later friendship with lots of misinterpretation fics! i want them, especially with those two!

look at Billy, making friends.

just to point things out, this was before the movie but after Billy established his identity as Dr Horrible, before getting Moist as his henchman and apartment buddy or going to the laundry mount to meet or see Penny.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

He has a new plan, it came to him when he at nuclear theory test he had that weekend, his was studying regenerative power as a major, he could easily be called the most talented and smartest person at his class.

Freeze Ray, he could totally make a freeze ray, not the one that … well … freeze stuff, no, it could make everyone stop, like rewinding time controller, only instead of rewinding certain objects to their old time frames it could simply stop them from continuing it.

Of course no one understood him when he told them his theory, as usual his fellow classmates avoided him once more like the plague, and he wondered vaguely why did they even join this course if they couldn't even understand the basics easily.

He didn't need to work hard on his studies, and because of that the scholarship fund was always rolling in. he used it to fund the cheap apartment he lives in, he plans to ditch it once he becomes a well-known villain and make some underground facility as his lair or something, and he was getting hints that many facilities and research groups are planning to recruit him once he graduates, so everyone was … jealous.

He hates it when they were jealous, if you were desperate enough to act on this feelings then you don't deserve it. you should work on making what you want happen instead of soaring down in self-pity and hating the other person who actually has it, he wants to yell at them that they weren't some poor guy who's only option was the perfect or else he'll be in the down low once again.

He lived in a 'group home' as a kid – orphanage but adults thought it was sad and called it that – after being taken away from his abusive father and his too mentally exhausted mother to take care of herself was announced unfit.

Every time he got adopted he was returned later on for being _too smart_, or sometimes always being too problematic, meaning always finding bullies on him and the parents didn't want a kid who couldn't even care for himself.

And the bullying was always the worst of his childhood. They would always pick on him for being _smart _it was annoying, it was painful and at that point of time it was scary and lonesome. He looked up to heroes as a child, but then found out that they were the main reason why he was always bullied at school.

The villains were always smart, always building robots or some weapon of the apocalypse, so they always pounded them and in a way, sending a subconscious message to all youth that smart means evil, means it was okay to bully smart people.

He knew it was far fetched, but he was proven right one time after being getting a black eye and walked down to the group home and witnessed when Justice Joe was fighting Mister Maniacal.

_"It's Okay to run away, Maniacal. I am, After all, about to beat you, mercilessly."_

_"why would I run? I've got you where I want you! Now the world will see that brains will always win over brawns!"_

_"whatever you say, __**Einstein."**_ it was the same _insult _the kids said punching him, and all his respect for super heroes fell down that day, because what he saw then was another bully, fighting another guy because he was _smart._ Maybe it also sent a subconscious message to his young self that smart people will end up bad guys?

_"What a hilarious made-up name!" _a woman said at that time next to him, he wanted to yell at her that Einstein was a genius mathematician and physics that probably helped humanity more than she would ever do to help herself. But bit his tongue at that time. _"He's as witty as he is strong!" _another man said, that was it for him, he left the area before he could hear more. After all, he wasn't welcome there, even as an elementary student he was too smart and delved himself in theory books, so in his young childish mind he thought that if they found out he was smart they would hurt him the same way Justice Joe hurt Mister Maniacal.

He grew out of those thought when he came to college, no one bothered themselves anymore and only cared about passing. However, there was always an exception, and it seems he was one of them.

Society was just a herd of sheep, tell them anything and they will believe it, with no leader to direct them they correctly it will fall apart. Modern society is lead with a reckless lion, it needs a cunning and sharp wolf, not a lion that spread lies of justice and other nonsense as such.

He plans on becoming a wolf. _The _wolf.

When he reached his room he went straight to his lab and propped the white board as h started writing equation after another, every letter and number with its own law knowing what will happen if he broke them made him happy until he fell asleep.

**0o0o0**

Hammer woke up from another late night patrolling, he grunts and pulled himself to the bathroom, grunting with every step. Finally in the bathroom he took a shower and brushed his teeth at the same time, a habit he can't seem to break no matter how much he tried.

After finishing the shower he took a shave cream and razor taking the new stubble he started to grow in one night making him wonder if there was such thing as hair fairies that makes their rounds at night only for grown men.

And some ladies, the ones from the circus, especially those, and some girls who have a small moustache that thought no man will notice but do, that is disgusting and a major turn off. If he flirted with any girl like that it made him feel like he was flirting with a guy instead.

Finishing up he took his hammer shirt and wore it, then took a white buttoned shirt with a grey-blue sweater vest on top of it. Ready for another day in the library he grabs all the colouring books he bought at Wal-Mart a few days ago and got out of his apartment.

Walking to the library he was thinking of all the things he could entertain the kids, he could tell them more super hero stories of the old heroes he looked up to as a child, or maybe do another puppet show, a small dancing game?

He then thought of the teachers that will be present, they all pretty much became very well-known acquaintances, not right there as friends though. Then he remembered something else, the Wal-Mart guy will come.

He was Billiam, er… William, Billy, what every, how does that even happen, Billy becoming the nickname for William, really now? the same thing for Bob, it was the nickname Robert, and it was still farfetched.

He was happy to note there aren't any school bus coming in and opened the library, it was owned by grandfather and not city hall, so when his grandfather died he wrote it down in his will saying it was his.

He was glad to open it for public though, he didn't sell it either, not wanting to lose any memory of his grandfather. He even kept the decor the same thing except for the children's section, where it became brighter to be accustomed to their tastes.

He was surprised to hear the door open, did any of the workers came earlier than usual? He looks up from the front desk and was surprised to find Wal-Mart guy, looking awkward with a red hood and jeans. He has some sketch pads with him, of all sizes as well, and a full wad of pencils and colours.

"Uh, too early?"

"you were looking up for this weren't you?" Richard said grinning at Billy's blush and small nod. "Yeah, I mean I don't get to relax much anymore, and hanging out with kids is cool, sometime they give you ideas for new things."

"Really, like what?" he asked as he started to arrange the small desks with the utensils, Billy joining in. "There once was a kid who said he wanted to be just like Spider-man, you know, comic super-hero" and probably his only favourite super hero. "and it gave me idea to make anti-gravity gloves! Do you know how much this will help construction workers! At first I wanted the gloves to ignore gravity and stick onto walls like Spider-man and all that then came the idea that it could repel things, with magnetism, just like Magneto! And if construction workers wore them it will help lessen accidents, it will repel ant fallen item from the sky and they will have more time to get away from getting squashed." Then Billy started to ramble about the technical difficulties making Hammer's head spin a bit.

"whoa there, I don't understand any of these things." He exclaimed, Billy stopped and looked ashamed at just letting himself talk like that. "S-Sorry, I keep forgetting that others don't understand these things."

"it's okay, that's kind of fascinating, knowing it is possible to build something like that. did you start on it?"

"Y-Yeah, but I'm running on trouble, I'm still working on my clean energy mini-rocket."

"mini-rocket?" a small voice squeaked out, they both jumped and looked down to find a brown haired girl with big heavy looking glasses on. Hammer raised a brow and looked at Billy who looked ready to start rambling once again.

"Yup, I have to build a rocket with something else than gas."

"You mean … like the ones we use for cars and busses?" she asked innocently, Billy beamed, it made Hammer feel a bit stupid for a moment, that a kid could make Billy happier and catch on to what he say faster than he did when _he _was the older one.

Then he stopped momentarily and thought of the fact that there is a kid. Now a row of children came running inside the library with someone crying at eh back as the teacher cradled him on her hips looking very motherly to them.

Billy stopped yapping with the little girl and stared at the woman. Richard did so as well.

Man, was the new teacher hot. She had fire red hair, reaching the beneath her back, very pale yet beautiful skin, and brown warm eyes, her red lipstick contemplating it all, making the image of a hot/cute woman that she was.

This was the new teacher replacing Mrs Brindle?

"Oh, hi. I'm Penny Parker."

"I'm Richard, the owner and librarian, are you going to sit on this or will you go catch on other things." He asked her making her frown. "Why would I do that? it's my job to watch over the children."

"Mrs Brindle used to do that." he said frowning as well. Penny rolled her eyes but smiled. "I guess I can see why they changed her. Nope, I'll stay with the kids, what's the program?" she asked, Billy was still staring at her having a goofy face as if love struck, the girl next to him noticed and scrunched her nose then kicked him at the shin making him yelp.

"That hurts." He said at the girl, she huffed and crossed her arms. "Tell me more about mini-rockets! You said it's different from the ones at the toy store and I want to know how!" she demanded making Penny sigh.

"Mandolin Bright, you will show respect to Mr…"

"Billy."

"Mr Billy, and ask nicely, and also apologize for kicking his legs like you did." It seems Mandy was about to start fighting when Miss Penny cut her off by saying. "or no scientific books for you today." Mandy looked horrified at the idea of no scientific books and looked back at the Billy.

"I'm sorry for kicking you in the shin Mr Billy, but you needed it or else you would never wake up and kept staring." She said in that innocent childish way. Billy blushed looking up at Penny then back to Mandy.

"That's okay kid, hey, how about we read together? After drawing there's free reading, right?" he asks Richard who nodded, then turned back to Mandy. "Free reading, then group story."

Mandy brightened up as she pulled him towards the tables where half the children were already there either drawing or colouring, or in some cases, making paper airplanes.

"Are you going to stay as the teacher?" Richard asked, Penny shook her. "Oh no, I volunteered, they're still looking for a good teacher, I'm watching over some kindergarten classes." She said then smiled. "I'm also volunteering at the homeless shelter."

That was something else he questioned. It was called homeless shelter, for the homeless, though when they go there and stay there for a few nights they aren't homeless, so they shouldn't stay there.

Right? Wrong? Stop Hammer this is stupid even by your standards.

"that's nice." He commented idly and walked off to colour with some kids, a group of them were around Billy as he showed them how to draw certain animals.


End file.
